Category:Champion (ship, 1859)

Champion (ship, 1859). Iron, side-wheel schooner-rigged steamer. First iron ship of any size built in the United States. Cost $145,000. Owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt. 1419 tons (1859), 1452 tons (1865), length 235ft x beam 35ft, iron hull, side paddle wheels, three masts. Capacity for 900 passengers. Built 1859 by Harlan & Hollingsworth, Wilmington, Del. for Cornelius Vanderbilt and sailed from New York for San Francisco on 23rd Oct.1859. Arrived SF on 1st Jan.1860 and made two San Francisco - Panama voyages for the Atlantic & Pacific SS Co. Sailed for New York on 3rd Apr.1860 and then operated New York - Aspinwall until the end of 1864. Chartered to the War Department in 1864-1865, she collided with the British barque LADY OCTAVIA on 8th Nov.1879 while 35 miles from the Delaware Capes and sank.